Sonny Liston may be the most underrated heavyweight boxing champion of all time. He had the misfortune of closing his career with the rise of Muhammad Ali, who was not just the most famous boxer of all time, and not just the most famous athlete of all time, but was in his time, the most famous man on the planet.

Upon signing to fight the champion, Ali began one of the most famous trash talking episodes in combat sports history. Fighters today say something snarky on Twitter.

Ali bought a bus, and had “Liston Must Go In Eight” printed on the side. That night of the signing, he drove the bus (with a media caravan behind him) to Liston’s home and began haranguing him. It was 3:00 a.m.

“Come on out of there,” Ali screamed over a megaphone. “I’m gonna whip you now.”

The bus then moved on to Liston’s training camp in Florida, and the harassment continued.

“After the fight, I’m gonna build myself a pretty home and use him as a bearskin rug,” promised Ali. “Liston even smells like a bear. I’m gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him… if Sonny Liston whups me, I’ll kiss his feet in the ring, crawl out of the ring on my knees, tell him he’s the greatest, and catch the next jet out of the country.”

Ali aimed to anger Liston, because an angry fighter is not an effective fighter. And he hoped Liston would question his sanity, as no one wants to fight a mad man.

“If Liston wasn’t thinking nothing but killing me, he wasn’t thinking fighting,” explained Ali later. “You got to think to fight.”

Sonny Liston was a tough guy. He was the 24th of his father’s 25 children (10 with his wife). His date of birth is not known.

“We grew up with few clothes, no shoes, little to eat,” said Liston. “My father worked me hard and whupped me hard.”

Liston was arrested 19 times, and served time for armed robbery and assaulting a police officer (the officer was left upside down in a garbage can). His contract was owned by top Mafia figures Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo.

So when he got tired of Ali’s antics, Liston determined upon a believable plan to fight back. Liston liked to gamble to relax, and Ali tracked him down at the The Desert Inn (it was on the site of Wynn) and began his routine. Was happened next was recreated in 1977’s The Greatest, starring The Greatest himself.

Liston lost both fights to Ali. He then won 14 in a row, but his title hopes were thwarted by a loss. His final fight was a win over Chuck Wepner. He died alone on 30 December 1970 of undetermined causes, that have been the subject of notable controversy.

His headstone bears the words ‘A Man’.